Clearly, what Mr. Ramo said is not what the people who are upset heard.\

But Ramo is a homme du monde and should know better.

When in Rome you never ever say anything nice about the Huns.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at a women’s hockey game between Japan and Sweden at the 2018 Olympics.

NBC Apologizes After Japan Comment Draws Anger in South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — The American network NBC has apologized after one of its analysts drew anger for a comment during coverage of the Pyeongchang Olympics that seemed to gloss over South Korea’s painful history with Japan, its former colonial master.

The analyst, Joshua Cooper Ramo, made the comment while appearing with Katie Couric and Mike Tirico during the opening ceremony on Friday. Noting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan was in attendance, Mr. Ramo described Japan as “a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945, but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation.”

The remark immediately ignited outrage in South Korea, the Olympic host nation, where resentment of Japan’s harsh early 20th-century annexation of the Korean Peninsula continues to simmer. Just last month, Mr. Abe’s attendance at the Games was in question after tensions escalated over Japan’s refusal to reissue an apology for the Japanese military’s role in forcing Korean and other women to work in military brothels during World War II.

나달🌱#이다야언니@kihsCharlotteReplying to @kihsCharlotteIOC bans any demonstration of political or racial propaganda in the Games.NBC commentator's praising Japan's colonization of Koreait's the same as advocating Nazi persecution of the Jews😡Shame on you NBC!@NBCOlympics @Olympics @iocmedia

똑바로 살라고!@xYXJfcmJGh2MfuRNBC commentator said that Korea appreciate the Japanese colonial ship.

Do you thank Japan for the Pearl Harbor raids?

Do not insult.

4:47 AM - Feb 10, 2018

Soon after Mr. Ramo’s remark, an online petition began to circulate demanding an apology from NBC. By Sunday, more than 8,000 people had signed it.

“Any reasonable person familiar with the history of Japanese imperialism, and the atrocities it committed before and during WWII, would find such statement deeply hurtful and outrageous,” the petition read. “And no, no South Korean would attribute the rapid growth and transformation of its economy, technology, and political/cultural development to the Japanese imperialism.”

In a statement read on-air by the NBC anchor Carolyn Manno on Saturday, NBC said: “We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize.”

A statement issued on Sunday from NBC Sports said: “We apologized quickly both in writing and on television for a remark made by one of our presenters during Friday night’s Opening Ceremony.”

“We’re very gratified that POCOG has accepted that apology,” the statement added, referring to the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Critics also seized on other remarks made during the broadcast by Mr. Ramo, who shared in both Peabody and Emmy Awards for his work for NBC during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

Harrison W. Inefuku@hnltravelerNBC's Olympics Asian Analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo says having the next three Olympics in Korea, Japan and China is an "opportunity to experience all of the Asian cultures." @NBCOlympics, maybe next time hire an Asian Analyst that knows Asia has more than three cultures???

8:38 PM - Feb 9, 2018231

Maureen Ryan, Variety’s chief television critic, wrote in a review of NBC’s broadcast of the Olympic opening ceremony that “Ramo’s endless generalities about what constituted ‘Asian’ culture felt about as deep as a Wikipedia entry.”

In addition to his role as an occasional Olympic commentator at NBC, Mr. Ramo is also co-chief executive of Kissinger Associates, an advisory firm founded by Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, and sits on the board of directors for Starbucks and FedEx.

Mr. Ramo’s remarks appeared to reinforce growing concerns among some South Koreans that the United States was favoring its partnership with Japan over that of its other longtime ally in the region, South Korea.

“You might think that Americans would be antagonistic toward Japan because it bombed Pearl Harbor,” said one Korean-language user on Twitter, who used the pseudonym James Bond. “But in reality, that’s not the case. Korea as the U.S. understands it is just a small appendage attached to eastern China.”